1. Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to processing soiled containers and more particularly to removing waste from a soiled container that is operable to house laboratory animals.
2. Description of Related Art
Laboratories use animals such as rats and/or mice housed in cages for testing and experimentation of pharmaceutical, cosmetic and other products. The cages require frequent cleaning to ensure that waste products and soiled bedding material are removed. Commonly the cage cleaning process involves moving the animal to a clean cage into which fresh bedding material has been dispensed. The soiled cage is then emptied of waste, washed and dried. Large laboratories may have the need for large numbers of cages to house a correspondingly large population of laboratory animals. For example, some laboratories may have the need to clean about 10,000 or more cages per day. Such laboratories may install automated equipment for washing and drying the cages.
The processing of cages still requires substantial manual intervention by laboratory personnel, who are then exposed to animal waste and any other bio-hazards associated with the experimentation being performed on the animals. There remains a need for methods and apparatus that automate processing operations related to maintaining the population of laboratory animals in animal test laboratories and other similar facilities.